1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to devices for use with artificial fingernails, and more particularly, to a device for retaining artificial fingernails during polishing, drying, maintenance and storage.
2. Description of the Background Art
The use of artificial fingernails (hereinafter "artificial nails") among women and young ladies has gained widespread acceptance. Artificial nails comprise curved fingernail-like structures commonly formed from a synthetic or plastic material, and may be obtained from a wide variety of sources. The application of artificial nails includes adhesively securing each nail to a person's natural nail, allowing the adhesive to cure, and subsequently finishing the nails by trimming and polishing to obtain a natural appearance. In addition, extended length nails that extend significantly past the end of the wearer's finger tips are often used to give the appearance of natural long nails.
There are, however, a number of disadvantages associated with the polishing of artificial nails once attached to the human nails. Specifically, freshly polished nails must be allowed to dry and the drying time for each nail disables the user from any manual activity for several minutes while each nail drys. Therefore, if nail polish were applied to each nail and allowed to dry before the nail is physically attached to the wearer's natural nails, the wearer would not have to experience the disadvantages associated with the time required to allow the nail polish to dry.
Some of the disadvantages associated with artificial nails are addressed by disclosures in the background art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,696,316, issued to Stanley, discloses a stand for polishing artificial fingernails, comprising a base having a convex head and a device for releasably attaching the fingernails to the head. U.S. Pat. No. 5,482,057, issued to Bushmaker, discloses a support for polishing artificial fingernails. The Bushmaker device is defined by a cylinder, having a first diameter forming a handle, a second diameter defining a surface having a curvature approximate that of an artificial thumbnail, and a third diameter defining a surface having a curvature approximate that of an artificial nail. U.S. Pat. No. 3,485,344, issued to Aylott, discloses a display device for artificial fingernails wherein artificial nails may be mounted for storage, transport and display purposes.
The background art, however, fails to disclose a device for effectively supporting artificial nails to provide adequate support during the application of polish while allowing the nails to be easily removed once dried.